In a phishing attack, an individual (e.g., a person, an employee of a company, a user of a computing device) receives a message, commonly in the form of an e-mail, directing the individual to perform an action, such as opening an e-mail attachment or following (e.g., using a cursor controlled device or touch screen) an embedded link. If such message were from a trusted source (e.g., co-worker, bank, utility company), such action might carry little risk. Nevertheless, in a phishing attack, such message is from an attacker (e.g., an individual using a computing device to perform an malicious act on another computer device user) disguised as a trusted source, and an unsuspecting individual, for example, opening an attachment to view a “friend's photograph” might in fact install malicious computer software (i,e,. spyware, a virus, and/or other malware) on his/her computer. Similarly, an unsuspecting individual directed to a webpage made to look like an authentic login or authentication webpage might be deceived into submitting his/her username, password or other sensitive information to an attacker.
While there are computer programs designed to detect and block phishing emails, phishing attacks methods are constantly being modified by attackers to evade such forms of detection. The present invention addresses some shortcoming of previous attempts to counter phishing attacks.